Ella Mary Leather
Ella Mary Leather
(1874-1928)
Ella Mary Leather was born at Bidney, in the parish of Dilwyn, Herefordshire, the daughter of James Smith, farmer, and his wife, Mary Ann. She was educated at Clyde House School in Hereford and at Hereford High School for Girls. In 1893 she married Francis Leather (1864-1929), a solicitor practising in the small Herefordshire town of Weobley. They had three sons: John Francis, who died in France in 1918; Geoffrey, who died in infancy; and Godfrey, who became a solicitor and died in 1943.
In 1905 Leather was persuaded by a friend and local author, the Revd Compton Reade, to contribute a chapter, The folk-lore of the shire, to his Memorials of Old Herefordshire (1905). This was followed by the publication of a selection of Herefordshire folktales in the first issue of the Herefordshire Magazine (1907). Thereafter, she became an ardent folklorist, conscious that the modern world would cause many of the old country customs of her childhood to die out.
In 1912 Leather's The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire was published by Jakeman and Carver. This work is still considered to be one of the seminal texts of English folklore. It contained the lyrics and music of 23 traditional carols, ballads and songs. Leather's musical skill was fairly rudimentary but she was encouraged by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who recognised the potential of Herefordshire as a source for folk songs, and arranged for a phonograph to be sent to her. Sharp and Vaughan Williams made several expeditions to Weobley and accompanied Leather on her visits to local gypsy encampments. Vaughan Williams later regarded a visit to Monkland in September 1912, where they collected a version of The Unquiet Grave from the Gypsy tenor Alfred Price Jones, as one of his “most memorable musical impressions”. In 1920 he collaborated with Leather in the publication of Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire.
Leather was equally interested in the collection of folk dances, including the morris dances at Brimfield in 1909. She established the Herefordshire branch of the English Folk Dance Society in 1925. One of her collected dances, Haste to the Wedding, was performed at the first National Festival of Folk Dance at the Albert Hall in 1926.
Ella Mary Leather died on 7 June 1928 and was buried in Weobley. Her scrapbook of papers relating to folk music resides at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML), London.
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